“Here Come the Judges: Samson” August 8, 2021; Judges 15: 9-20; Judges 14: 10-19 Summer Judges series; SAPC, Denton
10 His father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there as the young men were accustomed to do. 11 When the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. 12 Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments. 13 But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments.” So they said to him, “Ask your riddle; let us hear it.” 14 He said to them,
“Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.”
But for three days they could not explain the riddle.
15 On the fourth[a] day they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?” 16 So Samson’s wife wept before him, saying, “You hate me; you do not really love me. You have asked a riddle of my people, but you have not explained it to me.” He said to her, “Look, I have not told my father or my mother. Why should I tell you?” 17 She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted; and because she nagged him, on the seventh day he told her. Then she explained the riddle to her people. 18 The men of the town said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,
I am a few weeks behind on posting sermons, although I have heard no great outcry on the weeks I did not post sermons! this week I managed to skip the first Scripture lesson in the worship service, so those hearing the sermon in worship had not heard the passage from Judges. This was the first of two weeks on Samson, so I did not delve into the Delilah portion of Samson's story.
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
And he said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.”
19 Then the spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and he went down to Ashkelon. He killed thirty men of the town, took their spoil, and gave the festal garments to those who had explained the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.
15: 9-20 9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah, and made a raid on Lehi. 10 The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.” 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then have you done to us?” He replied, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.” 12 They said to him, “We have come down to bind you, so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” Samson answered them, “Swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me.” 13 They said to him, “No, we will only bind you and give you into their hands; we will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. 15 Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached down and took it, and with it he killed a thousand men. 16 And Samson said,
“With the jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
I have slain a thousand men.”
17 When he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and that place was called Ramath-lehi.[a]
18 By then he was very thirsty, and he called on the Lord, saying, “You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Am I now to die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came from it. When he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore it was named En-hakkore,[b] which is at Lehi to this day. 20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Introduction: Before finishing Judges, we have to visit the story of arguably the most famous judge – Samson.
Or should I say stories? Three chapters in Judges are dedicated to Samson’s story.
Big picture of these stories: the ongoing battle with the Philistines - both battle in the literal sense of killing each other, and battle in the struggle to live as a small group in the midst of the powerful Philistines.
Samson represented both - he would go to battle and kill; he would also find his life intertwined with Philistines, including in the story we read this morning, being married to a Philistine wife.
The bigger picture of Judges - remember when we started, I noted that each judge will get progressively worse, so now we are at the last judge, Samson, who is presumably the worst of the judges.
A couple of reflections this morning from Samson’s stories.
Move 1: Consider how we engage the biblical text at different times in life.
a. think about when you first heard Samson’s story as a child.
- I imagine you have one of three images, or maybe all of them
- Samson getting attacked by a lion and killing the lion with his bare hands.
- Samson swinging the jawbone of a donkey to slaughter the enemy.
4. A blind Samson in chains pulling down pillars on the Philistines.
5. Fascination with long hair (Lisa will get into that more next week)
- Maybe your Sunday School teacher made an allusion to Christ, as in Samson gave his life to save God's people and Christ did that too.
- Bottom line – Samson was not quite Christ, but he was something of a superhero.
b. Read about Samson as you get a bit older – maybe high school or college.
1. you’re at a point in life where you’ve been in dating relationships, maybe even married.
2. I suspect you notice now how Samson relates to his wives.
3. in the case of the story we read this morning, Samson gives in to his wife’s pleading and tells her the answer to the riddle, which gets him in trouble.
4. you might puzzle over the riddle - I have, and I still don’t get it!
5. You might read the story of Samson's birth and see connections between his birth narrative and others like Samuel, or John the Baptist, or Jesus.
6. But you might also notice that Samson seems almost egotistical or dumb, and he likes to fight.
c. Encounter the story later in life, maybe as a parent raising kids; as an adult with lots of life experience, an adult who has discovered the ambiguity life brings and the challenges that arise.
1. We see his flaws. he may be a hero, but he is as
or perhaps even more flawed
2. Samson comes across as rather dumb - Not once, but twice he cannot keep his mouth shut when women in his life pester him to reveal his secrets.
His dealings with his father-in-law and with his enemies lack cunning and guile.
He seems to be all brawn and no brain.
3. Samson clearly had some anger management issues - anger fuels his actions.
He wants to get back at others, repay them for what they have done for him.
He is a magnet for violence.
he may defeat the enemy, but there is always one more enemy waiting.
There is no sense that lasting peace can ever be achieved by this violent judge.
4. You may notice that Samson is driven by ego - He may be filled by the Spirit of the Lord, at times, but he seems to respond out of his own desires, rather than seeking to be an instrument of God.
even as the Israelites celebrate how Samson saves them, for Samson it is generally his lust for revenge.
d. Samson’s story reminds us that God speaks to us in ways that matter at all times of our lives.
1. Whatever age we are, wherever we find ourselves, the biblical story speaks to us.
2. AS young people, the hero image of someone whom God uses is might be what we need, so we have the story of this hero.
3. As we grow older and discover the ambiguity of life, we turn to the biblical text and realize that God is at work in the ambiguity.
4. One caution - when you see the complexity of the biblical story, do not run away from it, but embrace it.
5. The biblical story is not a FB pronouncement that easily declares certainty about any and every issue.
6. eh biblical story is complicated because God is at work in the real world, in our very lives.
7. It may be messy, but in the mess we find God who is working to save us, to save our world, to call us to new things.
8. Read the biblical stories and discover in those stories clues for finding God in our stories today.
Move 2: Samson’s Story also reveals important points about God.
a. the God of Israel is different than other gods.
1. part of what distinguished the Israelites from the other nations was that Israel did not have kings.
2. the lesson from judges is that the God of Israel works differently than any other god in the world around them.
3. As we look to see what God is doing in our world and seek God’s guidance for how God is calling us to act and speak in the world, remember that our God is different than the other gods out there.
4. Other gods will tell us that power and riches are what we need to seek.
Our God offers the way of building relationships;
speaking out in the face of justice;
seeking peace and love instead of power and control.
The God of Israel was different than the others gods of the world; our calling from God is different than the world’s calling.
c. God offers access
1. Ultimately, the Israelites push back and become a nation with a king, but do not forget the lesson of the judges.
2. IN this time, Israel did not have one person in whom all the power was vested; nor only one person through whom God would work.
3. The Israelites did not need a king, because God could and would find judges, particular people at particular times in particular places to lead God's people.
4. How do you understand God to be at work?
5. Are you looking for that king so to speak, to connect you to God?
6. Or do we look around and see people whom God chooses to call into leadership with their particular gifts at particular times.
7. I often ask you to think about those persons who have impacted your lives of faith. Generally, we think about those people who have nurtured us. But think about those people who have challenged you.
8. Or remember that time when there was a critical issue in the life of the church and the exact person with the needed skills stepped forward into leadership.
9. Or when someone felt called to a new initiative and made it happen.
10. Look around and see if you can find that person; Or look in the mirror. Maybe it was you.
Move 3: A final thought: God will not be kept from caring about and saving Israel.
a. Amazing that God works through someone like Samson.
- A love-struck guy who falls for a girl and will tell her anything, not just once, but twice, who has anger management issues and lets his ego guide him.
2. By the end of Samson’s story we may laugh at his ridiculous decisions or the way he was manipulated;
we may shake our head that Samson never seems to quite get it right
but, mostly, we will marvel at the God who uses Samson.
b. God will not stop until all the world has been redeemed.
1. A lesson the Israelites learned again and again, often the hard way.
2. In all the challenges we see before us in the world today - pandemic; a divided nation that argues over health care issues, justice issues, how to live with each other; a world struggling to find peace - look closely and you will see God at work, often in surprising places.
Listen closely, and you will hear God calling you to be a part of God’s work.
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